Lisa Wedeen (University of Chicago)

• Lynda Dematteo (EHESS)

  “Fascism and the Mimicry of Revolution in Antonio Gramsci: From Monkey People to Social Media People”

• Mariangela Schipani (University of Calabria)

  “The ‘Two Fascisms’: Internal Contradictions of the Fascist Movement in Antonio Gramsci’s Thought”

• Boris Kliushnikov (Unaffiliated)

  “Against Fascist Appropriation of Gramsci: The Role of Art and Aesthetics”

• Henrike Bloemen (University of Münster) & Gundula Ludwig (Universität Innsbruck)

  “Consenting (Affects of) Destruction and Violence: An Analysis of Fascistization of the Present through a Queer-Feminist Gramscian Approach”

15-minute coffee break

Title TBA

One hour break for lunch and coffee

• Roberto Viviani (McGill University)

  “Aesthetics of the Interregnum: Gramsci, Benjamin, and the Organization of Political Experience”

• Thibault Biscahie (University of Montréal)

  “From Transforms to Caesarism: Emmanuel Macron, Interregnum, and the Passive Revolution of French Neoliberalism”

• Genie Kuester (Arizona State University)

  “Organizing Consent, Constraining Democratic Agency: Gramsci and Predatory Persuasion Under Platform Capitalism”

15-minute coffee break

• Alessio Frau (University of Salerno)

  “Beyond Delegation and Presence: Gramsci on Democratic Representation”

• Alexandra de Ciantis (University of California Irvine)

  “Revisiting Gramsci’s Party in Response to the Contemporary Crisis of Party Democracy”

• Natasha Piano (University of California Los Angeles)

  “Title TBA”

• John Chalcraft (London School of Economics)

  “Title TBA”

15-minute break.

“Title TBA”

With commentary by Alastair Davidson

Closing remarks

Title: “Fascism or the Mimicry of Revolution in Antonio Gramsci: From Monkey People to Social Media People”

Panel: Fascism

Abstract:

Title: “The ‘Two Fascisms’: Internal Contradictions of the Fascist Movement in Antonio Gramsci’s Thought”

Panel: Fascism

Abstract:

Title: “Against Fascist Appropriation of Gramsci: The Role of Art and Aesthetics”

Panel: Fascism

Abstract:

Title: “Consenting (Affects of) Destruction and Violence: An Analysis of Fascistization of the Present through a Queer-Feminist Gramscian Approach”

Panel: Fascism

Abstract:

Title:

Abstract:

Title: “Aesthetics of the Interregnum: Gramsci, Benjamin, and the Organization of Political Experience”

Panel: Interregnum

Abstract:

Title: “From Transformism to Caesarism: Emmanuel Macron, Interregnum, and the Passive Revolution of French Neoliberalism”

Panel: Interregnum

Abstract:

Title: “Organizing Consent, Constraining Democratic Agency: Gramsci and Predatory Persuasion Under Platform Capitalism”

Panel: Interregnum

Abstract:

Title: “Beyond Delegation and Presence: Gramsci on Democratic Representation”

Panel: Democracy

Abstract:

Title: “Revisiting Gramsci’s Party in Response to the Contemporary Crisis of Party Democracy”

Panel: Democracy

Abstract: Amid rising authoritarianism and the capture of public institutions by unaccountable elites, political parties are widely considered to be the main culprits of democratic crisis. At the center of this “crisis of party democracy” is a breakdown in the relationship between citizens and their core institutions of popular self-rule, prompting democratic theorists to rethink the value, function, and form of parties in democracy. This article introduces Antonio Gramsci into the debate and offers an in-depth reconstruction of his early twentieth-century theory of party democracy. More specifically, it revisits his account of the party’s relationship to the democratic ideal of popular rule and places it in dialogue with two opposing yet influential alternatives: the proceduralist approach advanced by Schumpeterians and Kelsenians, and the left-populist approach advanced by agonistic democrats and plebeian republicans. Whereas these approaches accept the division between leaders and led as ineliminable, Gramsci defends the party—as a modern Prince—as the vehicle for overcoming this class division and constructing a coherent popular will. I argue that his model of party democracy offers a more promising solution to the present crisis. Resting on a reciprocal relationship between leaders and subaltern classes, it can produce a more robust form of accountable leadership and generate the direct popular participation necessary for the party to fulfill its function as an agent of popular sovereignty. By revisiting Gramsci’s mass-party model, I unearth resources for contemporary debates on party reform and propose a distinct Gramscian approach to revitalizing, rather than replacing, parties as core institutions of democracy against today’s dual threats of authoritarianism and oligarchy.

Title:

Panel: Democracy

Abstract:

Title:

Panel: Democracy

Abstract:

Title:

Abstract: